Hi fellow Travelers,
Today I'm sharing a long-overdue post about this really nice place in the corner of York Maine called the Hartley Mason Reserve. I think we found a hidden gem with this one!
Beautifully Hidden
One of the things that was challenging with this spot is I can't find almost anything historical online about it! I think that means I will have to visit the historical society that we drove by, one of these days.
The Hartley Mason reserve is a beautiful spot located in a corner of York Maine right along the ocean. From what little I remember it saying on the sign, which I unfortunately didn't take a picture of, was that Hartley Mason was a wealthy guy but appreciated that land like this belongs to the people of the area so he made it permanently accessible to the public. One thing that is pretty frustrating is of course the rich folks of the area made the parking area directly next to the water private, but typical for the area. Thankfully you can park close by and walk a little bit to it but it was a dreary day that we were here! What was fun was the really great waves. The walkway down to the water looked really cool in my opinion, it reminded me of something totally Maine. I don't see these stone walkways often except when in Maine.
Adjacent to the walkway down to the water is this cool Cliff Walk area. You are able to walk right along the cliffs, but cliff is a little strong of a word. It's only about 5 feet up, which is still pretty significant when you consider the sharp rocks at the bottom of the 5 feet! It was still pretty cool though, I haven't spent much time somewhere that was cliffs and along the ocean. You don't find that often in southern New England, though I'm sure it's more common in northern Maine but we enjoyed the precarious walk!
Along the walk there are some pretty interesting statues dotting the area. We have seen a few of them such as this one but the theme they seem to have is honoring and remembering people who have lived and died working the ocean. The York area, as well as most of the coastal towns, have a long history of people working the ocean for a living. As sad as it is to see someone dying at sea, I'm glad they honored him with a nice memorial here, a lot of others probably have without a memorial.
The history of the area has been best recorded on these really cool plaques that are along the walking trail. Reading the plaques is some really cool things, at least to me. There is a lot of importance for the area for various war efforts like the Revolutionary War, where ships were probably moored out in the Atlantic looking for a place to land and engage the Americans. The war of 1812 was another one that saw some importance of the area and will be a place that we will definitely check out. There is a lot of really interesting things to learn right in our own back yards. I'm glad to stop and spend a little time to check these types of things out, a lot of people don't and I think forgetting our past is a big mistake.
Looking at the Marshall House here, it's clear that Tourism has been a vital part of the whole world for a long time since we were able to cross large swaths of land easily via boats and carriages. (Relatively easily speaking of course, there are a lot of challenges associated with it all!) This kind of makes you reflect a little bit on why there is such a fervor against traveling right now, with the whole Rona going on. Traveling is in the nature of human beings! Restricting our travel abilities has never really been something that's happened before. Stopping travel to certain parts of the world has happened but local travel being prohibited is definitely not something that's ever been part of the human existence I don't think.
What I find sad with the Marshall House and what later became the Stage Neck Inn is that they demolished so many years of history to build condominiums. I get pretty annoyed with the desire to build condo's everywhere, it's ruining some areas!
I sat and enjoyed this giant statue for a little while when we were there. I think it's a beautiful testament to what I think is the most memorable part of Maine: beautiful forests and the coastline. Maine is definitely one of my favorite places to go because of the rich diversity in wildlife and untamed land but also because the coastline is unlike much of anywhere else along the East Coast. A lot of it is thankfully still wild and not ruined by man. I want to try and keep that the case as long as we can!
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